Broadband wireless is starting to gain traction among the Tier 1 U.S. carriers, as three of the industry's wireline powerhouses announced plans to launch commercial pilots of the technology, many of them using the new WiMAX gear currently awaiting certification.

BellSouth announced at Supercomm '05 that it was turning its long-running technical trial of Navini's Ripwave technology into a commercial pilot. The ILEC is deploying a multi-tower network in Athens, Ga., targeting the student population of the University of Georgia. The network will go live in August, and BellSouth will follow up with two launches in Florida by the end of the year, focusing on more traditional DSL fill-in scenarios, said Mel Levine, director of product management for the BellSouth's Wireless Services Group.

BellSouth has been running trials for more than two years in Daytona and Palatka, Fla., to test Navini's technology and the viability of broadband wireless over the 2.3 GHz frequencies, Levine said. But the new launches will be full commercial deployments in those markets. Information from those pilots will determine whether BellSouth decides to go ahead with a more extensive rollout throughout its territory.

“Whether it goes further depends on the success of these trials,” Levine said. “Overlaying Atlanta with a wireless cloud is technically feasible, but whether it's financially feasible is a different question. That's what we hope to learn.”

Overlaying Atlanta is exactly what AT&T plans to do — at least in parts of it. The company is deploying a four-tower network using certification-track gear from multiple WiMAX vendors to connect businesses in both downtown and suburban Atlanta.

While BellSouth's launch is primarily a residential small business play, AT&T is targeting larger businesses and enterprise branch offices with bundles of Internet access, voice-over-IP and IP virtual private network services, all over private experimental spectrum on loan from the FCC.

Sanford Brown, vice president of access product management for AT&T, said AT&T's original technical trial in Middleton, N.J., yielded some impressive results, which led to the planned Atlanta launch in the fourth quarter. Brown said customers in Middleton wanted to use the broadband wireless technology (using pre-WiMAX) gear not just as an alternate to T-1 access, but also as a way to provision access quickly in remote areas.

“It's hard for me to see a future that doesn't have multiple access technologies, but WiMAX is certainly an intriguing technology,” Brown said. “We're impressed with what we've seen so far.”

Outside of Georgia, Qwest is planning its own experiment with WiMAX in a yet-to-be-named small community outside Denver. Along with Verizon's trial of Alvarion's BreezeAccess gear over unlicensed gear in Virginia, that makes three of the four RBOCs and the country's largest IXC interested in WiMAX and broadband wireless.

According to analysts, momentum among the larger carriers has probably been building for some time. It's no coincidence that Tier 1 trials are occurring on the cusp of the WiMAX certification process, said Lindsay Schroth, broadband wireless analyst for the Yankee Group.

“With the first certified products scheduled to come out at the end of this year or the beginning of next year, the major carriers can actually start incorporating WiMAX plans into their budgets,” she said.

Some of that momentum might also come from necessity, though. Skylight analyst Emmy Johnson pointed out that the wireless communications services licenses held by BellSouth and Verizon are set to expire in the next two years. They either have to have commercial networks running or lose the spectrum, she said.

BBW TRIALS FROM MAJOR U.S. CARRIERS

AT&T — In the fourth quarter, AT&T is launching a commercial trial in Atlanta using pre-certified gear from multiple WiMAX vendors. AT&T also launched a technical trial in Middleton, N.J.

BellSouth — BellSouth is expanding its broadband wireless trial using Navini Ripwave gear to Athens, Ga., and two Florida communities by the end of the year.

Qwest Communications — In the fourth quarter, Qwest is planning to launch a trial in a community near Denver using an unspecified vendor's kit.

Verizon Avenue — Verizon's alternative access subsidiary Verizon Avenue launched a trial broadband wireless network in Grundy, Va., last year using Alvarion's BreezeAccess gear. Though Verizon owns WCS spectrum it chose to use unlicensed frequencies for the trial.

Source: Company info